Pearlcorder S701
07-27-2008, 05:44 PM
NOTE: DO NOT CONTINUE READING IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE RUINS YET AS THIS REVIEW CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS OF VARYING DEGREES OF INTENSITY
You know what the most frightening part of this film was? When I discovered that Ben Stiller was one of the lead executive producers on this over-the-top gorefest -- I'm not kidding. He apparently has something to do with Red Hour pictures which co-released this in conjunction with DreamWorks...
If someone had told me that this was the first serious horror film to deal with killer plant life since Little Shop of Horrors I would never have believed them...but in many ways, it's true. This is also one of the most viscerally violent and gore ladened pictures in the genre which in many ways is a positive remark -- and in other ways is not so positive in that while I'm a certified horror freak, there were scenes in this film that had me pausing the Blu-ray player and walking away to regain my composure after taking in one of these scenes in particular...
Based on the shocking novel of the same name, Director Carter Smith and a talented team of special effects wizards have crafted a horror film of many different dimensions in The Ruins...it has just the right amount of slight elements of humor, it's a psychological thrill ride and the gore in some places is downright disturbing; the plot centers around -- yes, once again -- a group of college friends who are partying in some Mexican resort (and the redundant elements of all horror films made since 2002 are here in all their glory: sexy scantily-clad 20-something girls gyrating on their boyfriends' laps unaware of anything regarding the outside world beyond their own cliques) are approached by some young German guy who immediately makes friends with them and tells them of an ancient temple of some sort that they are going to check out. The film actually makes you believe that this kid is up to no good -- that he is the one behind perhaps ******ing these other kids into a trap of some kind; but he ends up being the graphic example of the victim later on.
The college group -- played by Jonathan Tucker, a sexy Jena Malone and Laura Ramsey and Shawn Ashmore -- agree to follow this German guy who claims his friends will meet them at this temple later. As they approach the temple, they notice two children staring strangely at them from a distance -- a sign something already isn't right. Why wouldn't you just get the hell out of there? Why do your curiosities about the surrounding area outweigh your need for weed, liquor or smokes? Well, these are answers we never seem to get from our clueless college aged group -- as we never do in past experiences like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, House of Wax, Cabin Fever... Do I need to go on? The group pushes forward toward the big brick pyramid-like temple in the middle of the jungle they're in, and they're confronted by weird locals who begin threatening them with shotguns and arrows -- one of the groups' members (someone apparently with the German kid) has his head blown clean off by a rifle from one of these locals and apparently the only way to get away from these creeps is to make their way to the top of the temple.
There, the kids discover an abyss that leads to the inner bowels of the temple; when they think they hear a cell phone ringing down there, they lower the German guy down by rope but it snaps and he falls on his back and head to the bottom of this abyss -- instantly paralyzing him. The film centers around trying to rescue this guy for a good portion of the running time and once the two girls get lowered down there to try and help him, the secret of this temple is revealed. There is an ancient "trap" set in this temple -- a hungry vine-like plant life that feeds on human blood and flesh...the flowers of these vines apparently can immitate the sounds around them and the "attack mode" they go into sounded very much like a cell phone ringing to lure the kids down. Meanwhile, they figure out that the locals surrounding the temple with arrows and guns are actually creating a quarantine of sorts -- a perimiter so the kids don't spread this contamination of the plants to the outside world. The premise was very unique and promising, if borrowing a bit from end-of-the-world disease projects of late like I Am Legend or Resident Evil: Extinction yet it takes way too long for any serious horrific action to play onscreen. There's also a stupid subplot involving Jena Malone's character who was so drunk before the group left for the temple that she almost slipped her tongue inside the mouth of the German kid leading the journey -- without her boyfriend, Jonathan Tucker, knowing it -- but it's ridiculous.
The gore gets shocking in further scenes with the German kid who is eventually rescued from the bowels of the temple and carried up to the roof by a makeshift backboard the kids make; he has broken his back and there seems to be nothing they can do for him -- but in a rather grotesque sequence which had me looking away from the screen a couple of times, Jonathan Tucker's character, who is a premed student, discovers that this guy's legs are getting infected after the killer vines of the temple attacked the legs to eat his flesh; he concludes the only way to save him is to cut his legs off completely...and guess what, folks? They do! In a gag-inducing scene, Tucker and Ashmore take a pocket knife, the only weapon they seemingly have, and literally cut this guy's legs off of him -- and it's shown in all its bloody glory in this Unrated cut. But that's after Tucker takes a huge stone, heated by a fire, and smashes his leg bones to pieces so it makes it easier to cut them off -- this was truly gross, people, and kind of turned me off to the whole film; it was a bit too much. Then, when the killer vines slither their way to the man's disembodied feet and legs and take them away, I really had enough.
The plot collapses then into really gross sequences of the killer vines getting under some of these kids' skin and needing to be cut out by the same pocket knife -- and Laura Ramsey's character's obssession with cutting the vines from under her skin and from within her head; it's really grotesque if you like that sort of thing. I don't know...maybe I'm just getting too old...I used to sensationalize gory titles like John Carpenter's The Thing but this went way beyond that -- especially that leg cutting scene. The surviving two kids -- Tucker and Malone -- figure out that they need to break through this perimiter the villagers have created around the temple in order to survive, so they stage Malone's death in order for her body to be placed in front of the villagers and then she can make a quick run for it to the outer edges of the jungle, where mysteriously, a jeep awaits for her...but in what the DVD cover calls a "disturbing climax," (which I don't get) we see Malone driving the jeep to seemingly apparent safety...when suddenly the vines of the killer plants pop out of her face...okay.
I couldn't help but think The Ruins was very much like Cabin Fever and if you've ever seen that film you'll know what I'm talking about -- only The Ruins has been turned up many notches on the volume scale.
VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS:
1080p HIGH DEFINITION TRANSFER
I have been waiting for a Blu-ray release from DreamWorks, who jumped onboard the high definition ship late in the game, based on their excellent history of DVD product -- can anyone remember the audio demos that were Saving Private Ryan or Gladiator both in DTS? Their home video releases have been ridiculously enjoyable and have satisfied hardcore home theater fans with great release after great release; this Blu-ray of The Ruins is no different.
Frustratingly, DreamWorks/Spyglass doesn't include the aspect ratio information or any compression schemes used as Fox and others do; this 1080p transfer measured about the standard 2.35:1 ratio across my screen. This may be the demo Blu-ray for current film-based titles, my friends; wow -- this was one stunning transfer and much different from the last travesty that played in my deck, Shutter...the colors are vividly real and eye-popping, especially during the sequence when the kids are on the beach in the beginning and sunbathing. There isn't a glimpse of grit or noise in these outdoor sequences. The image isn't quite "three dimensional" with that depth we have all been searching for with high definition -- but it's clean. Very clean.
All is not perfect, however...some sequences exhibit a very slight twitchy "fuzzyness" in the background -- such as long-distance background shots when the kids are on top of the temple and you can see the jungle and sky in the background...there appears to be a grainy "interference" back there. But as I said, it's slight -- meanwhile, the darker sequences, such as when they're deep in the bowels of the temple, while remaining stable and clean, also exhibit a bit of noise and "grit" -- probably having more to do with the difficulty of photographing in these kinds of locations than with the actual transfer. I also noticed varying degrees of black crush where you couldn't make out what was going on in sequences in the bowels of the temple.
AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS:
ENGLISH DOLBY TRUEHD 5.1; SUBTITLES IN ENGLISH, ENGLISH SDH, FRENCH, SPANISH & PORTUGESE
You know how most home video formats offer a soundtrack that seems better than the video quality? It's the reverse with The Ruins...from the very beginning, this is a whisper quiet Dolby TrueHD mix; you're gonna need to crank your system up just to make out the dialogue. There's also a lack of surround information -- I don't know what went wrong here, but for such an effects-ladened film, nothing really makes it into the surround channels. Some of the attack sequences by the killer plants can be heard "slithering" in the surrounds -- but it's extremely weak and low in output. A dissapointing mix from DreamWorks, who, as I mentioned, has a great track record of kicking out killer demos like Saving Private Ryan and Gladiator.
There are extras about the making of the film and some interviews with Ben Stiller himself -- which makes for an entertaining watch because you'd never associate him with a horror film of this magnitude in terms of gore.
Well, there you have it, friends -- I won't be adding The Ruins to my collection because that leg scene, and some others, are a bit too much for my tastes -- I don't think I could sit through that again. But the premise of killer plant life was an interesting one that hasn't been done in quite some time -- and so I applaud Red Hour for making the attempt. If this is your cup of tea, by all means go for it...the video quality may be worth it alone.
You know what the most frightening part of this film was? When I discovered that Ben Stiller was one of the lead executive producers on this over-the-top gorefest -- I'm not kidding. He apparently has something to do with Red Hour pictures which co-released this in conjunction with DreamWorks...
If someone had told me that this was the first serious horror film to deal with killer plant life since Little Shop of Horrors I would never have believed them...but in many ways, it's true. This is also one of the most viscerally violent and gore ladened pictures in the genre which in many ways is a positive remark -- and in other ways is not so positive in that while I'm a certified horror freak, there were scenes in this film that had me pausing the Blu-ray player and walking away to regain my composure after taking in one of these scenes in particular...
Based on the shocking novel of the same name, Director Carter Smith and a talented team of special effects wizards have crafted a horror film of many different dimensions in The Ruins...it has just the right amount of slight elements of humor, it's a psychological thrill ride and the gore in some places is downright disturbing; the plot centers around -- yes, once again -- a group of college friends who are partying in some Mexican resort (and the redundant elements of all horror films made since 2002 are here in all their glory: sexy scantily-clad 20-something girls gyrating on their boyfriends' laps unaware of anything regarding the outside world beyond their own cliques) are approached by some young German guy who immediately makes friends with them and tells them of an ancient temple of some sort that they are going to check out. The film actually makes you believe that this kid is up to no good -- that he is the one behind perhaps ******ing these other kids into a trap of some kind; but he ends up being the graphic example of the victim later on.
The college group -- played by Jonathan Tucker, a sexy Jena Malone and Laura Ramsey and Shawn Ashmore -- agree to follow this German guy who claims his friends will meet them at this temple later. As they approach the temple, they notice two children staring strangely at them from a distance -- a sign something already isn't right. Why wouldn't you just get the hell out of there? Why do your curiosities about the surrounding area outweigh your need for weed, liquor or smokes? Well, these are answers we never seem to get from our clueless college aged group -- as we never do in past experiences like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, House of Wax, Cabin Fever... Do I need to go on? The group pushes forward toward the big brick pyramid-like temple in the middle of the jungle they're in, and they're confronted by weird locals who begin threatening them with shotguns and arrows -- one of the groups' members (someone apparently with the German kid) has his head blown clean off by a rifle from one of these locals and apparently the only way to get away from these creeps is to make their way to the top of the temple.
There, the kids discover an abyss that leads to the inner bowels of the temple; when they think they hear a cell phone ringing down there, they lower the German guy down by rope but it snaps and he falls on his back and head to the bottom of this abyss -- instantly paralyzing him. The film centers around trying to rescue this guy for a good portion of the running time and once the two girls get lowered down there to try and help him, the secret of this temple is revealed. There is an ancient "trap" set in this temple -- a hungry vine-like plant life that feeds on human blood and flesh...the flowers of these vines apparently can immitate the sounds around them and the "attack mode" they go into sounded very much like a cell phone ringing to lure the kids down. Meanwhile, they figure out that the locals surrounding the temple with arrows and guns are actually creating a quarantine of sorts -- a perimiter so the kids don't spread this contamination of the plants to the outside world. The premise was very unique and promising, if borrowing a bit from end-of-the-world disease projects of late like I Am Legend or Resident Evil: Extinction yet it takes way too long for any serious horrific action to play onscreen. There's also a stupid subplot involving Jena Malone's character who was so drunk before the group left for the temple that she almost slipped her tongue inside the mouth of the German kid leading the journey -- without her boyfriend, Jonathan Tucker, knowing it -- but it's ridiculous.
The gore gets shocking in further scenes with the German kid who is eventually rescued from the bowels of the temple and carried up to the roof by a makeshift backboard the kids make; he has broken his back and there seems to be nothing they can do for him -- but in a rather grotesque sequence which had me looking away from the screen a couple of times, Jonathan Tucker's character, who is a premed student, discovers that this guy's legs are getting infected after the killer vines of the temple attacked the legs to eat his flesh; he concludes the only way to save him is to cut his legs off completely...and guess what, folks? They do! In a gag-inducing scene, Tucker and Ashmore take a pocket knife, the only weapon they seemingly have, and literally cut this guy's legs off of him -- and it's shown in all its bloody glory in this Unrated cut. But that's after Tucker takes a huge stone, heated by a fire, and smashes his leg bones to pieces so it makes it easier to cut them off -- this was truly gross, people, and kind of turned me off to the whole film; it was a bit too much. Then, when the killer vines slither their way to the man's disembodied feet and legs and take them away, I really had enough.
The plot collapses then into really gross sequences of the killer vines getting under some of these kids' skin and needing to be cut out by the same pocket knife -- and Laura Ramsey's character's obssession with cutting the vines from under her skin and from within her head; it's really grotesque if you like that sort of thing. I don't know...maybe I'm just getting too old...I used to sensationalize gory titles like John Carpenter's The Thing but this went way beyond that -- especially that leg cutting scene. The surviving two kids -- Tucker and Malone -- figure out that they need to break through this perimiter the villagers have created around the temple in order to survive, so they stage Malone's death in order for her body to be placed in front of the villagers and then she can make a quick run for it to the outer edges of the jungle, where mysteriously, a jeep awaits for her...but in what the DVD cover calls a "disturbing climax," (which I don't get) we see Malone driving the jeep to seemingly apparent safety...when suddenly the vines of the killer plants pop out of her face...okay.
I couldn't help but think The Ruins was very much like Cabin Fever and if you've ever seen that film you'll know what I'm talking about -- only The Ruins has been turned up many notches on the volume scale.
VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS:
1080p HIGH DEFINITION TRANSFER
I have been waiting for a Blu-ray release from DreamWorks, who jumped onboard the high definition ship late in the game, based on their excellent history of DVD product -- can anyone remember the audio demos that were Saving Private Ryan or Gladiator both in DTS? Their home video releases have been ridiculously enjoyable and have satisfied hardcore home theater fans with great release after great release; this Blu-ray of The Ruins is no different.
Frustratingly, DreamWorks/Spyglass doesn't include the aspect ratio information or any compression schemes used as Fox and others do; this 1080p transfer measured about the standard 2.35:1 ratio across my screen. This may be the demo Blu-ray for current film-based titles, my friends; wow -- this was one stunning transfer and much different from the last travesty that played in my deck, Shutter...the colors are vividly real and eye-popping, especially during the sequence when the kids are on the beach in the beginning and sunbathing. There isn't a glimpse of grit or noise in these outdoor sequences. The image isn't quite "three dimensional" with that depth we have all been searching for with high definition -- but it's clean. Very clean.
All is not perfect, however...some sequences exhibit a very slight twitchy "fuzzyness" in the background -- such as long-distance background shots when the kids are on top of the temple and you can see the jungle and sky in the background...there appears to be a grainy "interference" back there. But as I said, it's slight -- meanwhile, the darker sequences, such as when they're deep in the bowels of the temple, while remaining stable and clean, also exhibit a bit of noise and "grit" -- probably having more to do with the difficulty of photographing in these kinds of locations than with the actual transfer. I also noticed varying degrees of black crush where you couldn't make out what was going on in sequences in the bowels of the temple.
AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS:
ENGLISH DOLBY TRUEHD 5.1; SUBTITLES IN ENGLISH, ENGLISH SDH, FRENCH, SPANISH & PORTUGESE
You know how most home video formats offer a soundtrack that seems better than the video quality? It's the reverse with The Ruins...from the very beginning, this is a whisper quiet Dolby TrueHD mix; you're gonna need to crank your system up just to make out the dialogue. There's also a lack of surround information -- I don't know what went wrong here, but for such an effects-ladened film, nothing really makes it into the surround channels. Some of the attack sequences by the killer plants can be heard "slithering" in the surrounds -- but it's extremely weak and low in output. A dissapointing mix from DreamWorks, who, as I mentioned, has a great track record of kicking out killer demos like Saving Private Ryan and Gladiator.
There are extras about the making of the film and some interviews with Ben Stiller himself -- which makes for an entertaining watch because you'd never associate him with a horror film of this magnitude in terms of gore.
Well, there you have it, friends -- I won't be adding The Ruins to my collection because that leg scene, and some others, are a bit too much for my tastes -- I don't think I could sit through that again. But the premise of killer plant life was an interesting one that hasn't been done in quite some time -- and so I applaud Red Hour for making the attempt. If this is your cup of tea, by all means go for it...the video quality may be worth it alone.